The Cambridge City Council passed last week a series of controversial amendments to the Cambridge Tobacco Ordinance, including an increase in the purchase age to 21 years old and limits on smoking in public parks and use of e-cigarettes, our partners at Wicked Local reported Tuesday.

The new ordinance won’t be implemented until June 1 after councilors asked for a grace period to educate store owners who sell tobacco products.

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“We would try to identify businesses, send them a letter, like we did with the no smoking in restaurants,” City Manager Richard Rossi said Thursday, Jan. 29. “We really worked with people to educate them rather than punishing them, initially.”

The existing tobacco ordinance was ratified in 2003 after a long stakeholder process, establishing restrictions on public use and purchase of tobacco.

The Public Health Department had originally proposed a citywide ban on smoking in municipal open spaces and parks during an Oct. 30 Ordinance Committee meeting.

But the department offered a second option in December after members of the Ordinance Committee said at the October meeting that they would like to see an alternative for people who want to smoke in parks.

Councilors adopted an amended Option B Thursday, which prohibits people from smoking in fenced-in tot lots, parks smaller than 15,000 square feet, and public open space and parks during city-permitted events.

Vice Mayor Dennis Benzan requested that unfenced tot lots be added to a list of playgrounds where smoking is prohibited, banning smoking from all tot lots. Councilor Leland Cheung filed an amendment to ban the use of e-cigarettes in restaurants.

Under the new law, which attempts to regulate nicotine-delivery products (NDP), such as electronic cigarettes, smoking in hotels, inns, motels and bed-and-breakfast establishments is prohibited, as well as outdoor seating areas adjacent to bars and restaurants.

Amendments also ban the sale of NDP and tobacco in pharmacies, cigarette vending machines, commercial roll-your-own machines and tobacco products that are typically used to appeal to younger customers, such as blunt wraps.

The legal age to purchase tobacco or NDP was raised to 21 years old. And establishments that offer water pipes or hookahs in outdoor seating areas were exempted.

The new law also includes restrictions on the sale of flavored tobacco products, which will only be sold by smoke shops or tobacconists, and changes in minimum pricing for single-serve cigars.

Members of the Cambridge Citizens for Smokers’ Rights, who have been protesting the amendments for months, said they felt disappointed by the council’s decision.

“I was disappointed as to how little time was really given to these incredibly complex and far-reaching amendments,” Emily Wieja, a member of the group, said in a follow-up interview. “They were discussed during several council meetings, but always mixed in with a myriad of other unrelated issues and didn’t really get the time they deserved.”

“There were so many issues, all lumped together, that it made it all incredibly difficult for us to address and fight against in our short public comment periods,” Wieja added.

Wieja said the group is considering filing an online petition that would ask the City Council to repeal the park and patio ban.

“I do feel that smokers are slowly, purposefully, being forced out of public life,” she said, adding that members of her group will practice civil disobedience when possible.